Help Needed!!! WebCam feature or something else - General Help and Assistance on using CHDK stable releases - CHDK Forum supplierdeeply
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Help Needed!!! WebCam feature or something else

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Offline melli182

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Help Needed!!! WebCam feature or something else
« on: 30 / May / 2011, 11:48:39 »
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Hello!

Well, first of all, i am new in the forum, y found it looking for a solution to a problem i have to solve for my work  :blink:. When i discove the forum, i felt relieved, finally some place where i can post my questions and interact with more users  :xmas!!!

Then, my problem is this:

I have to conect a camera with the pc (runing Windows SO), and take remote pictures from the pc, and have a live view in the pc monitor, i need to integrate it with some program made in java o c++, etc.

At first i was trying to do this with a coolpix p300 from nikon, but i came to the conclusion that this is quite impossible, so now i am trying to do this with a canon and the chdk.

I am noob so i dont know how to start, i read lots of post and have an idea, but ill realy apreciate if someone could help me a bit...

i also would apreciate if someone could recomendo me some (no so expensive) camera which apply for my implementention...

Tanks in advace for everyone who take some minutes to read my problem!!!

PD: Sorry for my english, as you could see its not my native language, i am from Uruguay   ::)...
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Offline reyalp

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Re: Help Needed!!! WebCam feature or something else
« Reply #1 on: 30 / May / 2011, 17:13:31 »
CHDK does not currently provide this kind of webcam operation. This is under developmentment, see http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/PTP_Extension and the ptp development thread: http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php/topic,4338.0.html

You can currently control shooting and transfer files, but live view is not available in the current CHDK trunk. There is some experimental work by mweerden at the end of that thread to support live view. If you are a programmer, that may be something you can use.  You might also be able to do something using the cameras video out function and some kind of video capture device.

You should understand that the entire PTP extension is quite experimental. It can be used, but you should not expect it is perfectly complete and stable. You may have to do some hacking and debugging to get it working in your particular project, and it may not do everything that you need.

Some Canon cameras can do this kind of web cam operation CHDK, using the Canon SDK. Unfortunately, this mostly applies to older cameras.
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Offline melli182

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Re: Help Needed!!! WebCam feature or something else
« Reply #2 on: 31 / May / 2011, 13:14:01 »
Thanks for your answer!!! ill check the links.

BTW the live view could be solved using a video capture device, as you said, but i still have the problem to control the camera only with the pc, i need to take photos only when i want, using for example a java program.

And of course, i need to send the images to the pc hard disk, maybe with a wifi sd card this could be solved...

Thanks for your time!!!
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Offline fudgey

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Re: Help Needed!!! WebCam feature or something else
« Reply #3 on: 31 / May / 2011, 13:26:16 »
Quote from: melli182 on 31 / May / 2011, 13:14:01
but i still have the problem to control the camera only with the pc, i need to take photos only when i want, using for example a java program.

CHDK's PTP extension solves this (well not readily in java, but at least reyalp's lua client is command line capable so it's easily scripted to any other app)

Quote from: melli182 on 31 / May / 2011, 13:14:01
And of course, i need to send the images to the pc hard disk, maybe with a wifi sd card this could be solved...

...and you can transfer files too, just need to reboot every now and then to let the camera know they're gone.


Unless of course you require industrial quality reliability, in which case a Canon P&S camera is not suitable for your purposes at all.
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Offline melli182

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Re: Help Needed!!! WebCam feature or something else
« Reply #4 on: 31 / May / 2011, 14:16:55 »
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Offline melli182

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Re: Help Needed!!! WebCam feature or something else
« Reply #5 on: 01 / June / 2011, 08:37:20 »
Oh I have a new problem... I started looking for whats LUA about and i found that its works on Linux, i wish i am wrong and there is a Windows version...

Please if someone could helpme with this and the first problem, i would be so grateful...
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Offline zeno

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Re: Help Needed!!! WebCam feature or something else
« Reply #6 on: 01 / June / 2011, 12:08:28 »
I may be wrong, but I think your simplest solution is to get a camera that supports the Canon Digital Camera Software Developers Kit (not CHDK). You can read about it here http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/standard_display/sdk_homepage

It may no longer be available, but it offered remote control including video out for quite a few older Canon cameras.

Using lua (which is a scripting language that runs in CDHK cameras as well as under Linux and Windows) combined with the experimental PtP support in CHDK may be something you can get to work, but it will require a great deal of expertise and hard work.
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Offline melli182

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Re: Help Needed!!! WebCam feature or something else
« Reply #7 on: 01 / June / 2011, 14:36:44 »
Thanks you so much for the advice... I will check the link and will try to download that software...

I am gooing to buy a Canon camera, i think that the EOS XS 1000D its a good option... what do you think??? could i use the original software to interact with my program??? this is a good camera???
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Offline reyalp

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Re: Help Needed!!! WebCam feature or something else
« Reply #8 on: 01 / June / 2011, 16:50:10 »
Quote from: melli182 on 01 / June / 2011, 08:37:20
Oh I have a new problem... I started looking for whats LUA about and i found that its works on Linux, i wish i am wrong and there is a Windows version...
Lua is portable, it works fine on windows and many other platforms. The client fudgey mentioned has a thread http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=6231.0

edit:
You really don't need to post the same question in lots of different threads. You have already been given the facts in this thread, asking again won't change.
« Last Edit: 01 / June / 2011, 16:52:33 by reyalp »
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Offline Herra Tohtori

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Re: Help Needed!!! WebCam feature or something else
« Reply #9 on: 01 / June / 2011, 18:37:40 »
If you have the budget for it, get a video capture card for your computer, and use that as a video device that you should be able to capture. Just make sure the camera you get has A/V outlet that is compatible with the video capture card; my SX130IS has a three-forked RCA cable that hooks up to the mini-USB port on camera, with composite video on yellow plug, and two audio channels on white and red connectors.

That would probably be the easiest way of getting the image stream from camera to computer, but the bad news is that video capture cards tend to be a wee pricey, so the other option would be to get a camera that supports image transition via USB connection natively. I don't know if there are any on the market, though. Depending on quality you need (FPS, resolution and compression level) you might want to actually just check on the higher end webcams.

If FullHD cameras have sufficient resolution but insufficient optical qualities, I suppose you might be able to modify the optics by, say, getting some old binoculars and duct-taping (or using any method of attachment you prefer) the camera on the eyepiece of the binoculars to get a tele objective, or doing other stuff like that.


Are you doing this to prove a point (that it can be done with a digital camera that doesn't officially support such feature) or to get something done? If former, all the best luck in your endeavours. If latter... it might prove easiest and most cost-efficient to get something designed for the purpose - namely, an actual webcam. ;)
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